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MAJURO, Marshall Islands (April 2, 2001 – Radio Australia)---American tobacco companies have failed in a bid to get courts in the Marshall Islands disqualified from hearing a potential multi-billion dollar lawsuit over the health impacts of smoking.

U.S. Chief Justice Allen Fields says claims advanced by the companies to disqualify courts in Majuro from the case because of alleged political interference with the judiciary were without merit.

Judge Fields was critical of two American lawyers who previously worked for the government, James McCaffrey and David Lowe, for "egregious" and "unjustified" actions against the High Court in recent years, which the tobacco companies tried to use as evidence of government interference with the courts.

Late last year, American tobacco companies challenged the credibility of U.S. High Court Judge H. Dee Johnson, appealing to the Supreme Court that the lower court could not fairly and impartially hear the case....

AVARUA, Rarotonga, Cook Islands (April 3, 2001 - Cook Islands Government)---Prime minister Dr. Terepai Maoate says he is encouraged by the growing efforts of the non-OECD jurisdictions to rally together and contend with the constraints they face in having to negotiate with the 29-member Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on international taxation matters.

However, Dr. Maoate is also concerned that the overseas media is promoting a confused understanding of the issues.

While the non-OECD jurisdictions are moving quickly to consolidate their positions under a newly established International Tax and Investment Association (ITIA), the prime minister lashed out at news reports which he says revealed ignorance and confusion over money-laundering and legitimate, international tax competition issues.

"The media is clearly getting it wrong," says Dr. Maoate, "which is a deep concern for the Cook Islands and other small island states. Not only...

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (April 3, 2001 - Post-Courier/PINA Nius Online)---Scientists studying sperm whales in Papua New Guinea's Bismarck Sea have discovered far more whales than they expected, participants in a seminar were told.

Captain Iain Kerr, chief executive officer of Ocean Alliance, a conservation group dedicated to the preservation of whales and their ocean environment through education and research, announced the finding.

The seminar was hosted by the National Museum and the United States Embassy.

The Ocean Alliance’s multi-media presentation was designed to convey to officials and people involved in fisheries, conservation and environmental protection and education the threats whales face.

Ocean Alliance is in Papua New Guinea waters as part of a three-year global voyage, designed to study the genetics and level of toxins present in sperm whales throughout the world.

The voyage, which began in March of last year, has brought...

ISSUE NO. 12 – 2ND APRIL 2001

INTERNATIONAL UPDATE

Thomascook.com: "It's time to leave the country" Thomascook.com's "It's time to leave the country" campaign, initially launched at the beginning of the year, is now rolling out a new, online element to raise awareness of the flights proposition and the new city breaks proposition on the thomascook.com site. In keeping with the sentiment of the rest of the campaign, this online initiative is designed to emphasize various elements of UK life from which it might be nice to escape for a while. Foot and Mouth immediately springs to mind, although the campaign leads on tubehell.com, a site dedicated to London's commuters, who can not only "vent their anger at the daily indignities of traveling by Tube," but should soon have the additional opportunity to make use of the site's ingenious underlying business model. Frustrated tube users are one audience thomascook.com hopes will be only too happy to relate to the sentiment...